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Topic: Ink saver (Read 3628 times)

I have noticed that windows XP (and probably the other windows) uses a lot less ink than Linux Ubuntu, even without an ink saver.

It is misleading to attribute the ammount of ink usage/saving to the OS. Regardless which OS it is. The ink saving is a feature of the drivers/firmware provided by the relevant manufacturer. The OS has no control over it.

I have noticed that windows XP (and probably the other windows) uses a lot less ink than Linux Ubuntu

That's a facinating statement and I've never heard anyone make that distinction before, personally I have used both Windows & Linux operating systems for quite a while and I've never noticed any significant difference in ink usage , but then I've never conducted any controlled tests, I always thought that ink usage was dependant on quality setting/ printer make/drivers etc but not the operating system ie 2 identical documents printed with exactly the same quality settings on the exactly the same printer would use exactly the same ink regardless of operating system

Can you tell me what tests you've carried out to substantiate this ?

Graeme

« Last Edit: April 26, 2013, 08:58:15 pm by Emegra »

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If you can keep your head while all around are losing theirs, then you're not quite grasping the situation

Lets say for arguments sake I have an ink jet printer connected to a PC that dual boots Windows XP & Ubuntu and I have 2 brand new identical ink cartridges and install one of these cartridges in the printer, boot into Windows XP and continue to print copies of a text document until the ink ran out, then install the second new cartridge, boot into Ubuntu and print the same text document with the exact same print quality settings, again until the ink ran out

Under these conditions are you saying that I would get less printed copies printing from Ubuntu than I would get printing from Windows ?

Graeme

« Last Edit: April 26, 2013, 09:29:49 pm by Emegra »

Logged

If you can keep your head while all around are losing theirs, then you're not quite grasping the situation

As Sezo suggests, technically that's possible (though it's equally possible the other way round too) .. if the Linux drivers are badly written.

The trick is, buy a printer that has decent Linux support .. HP

and steer clear of manufacturers that are half-assed about Linux support.

goldtopia's Canon drivers haven't been updated since 2009 (IIRC), which doesn't show a great deal of support for Linux from Canon.

At the end of the day, printer hardware is pretty much sold at give away prices .. the money's in the ink .. so rather than keep refilling a printer that you suspect has crap Linux drivers, get a new HP

If printing from a dual boot system and the same printer driver is used for both OS's its quite possible there may be no difference of ink usage between linux and windows. My windows XP and Linux Ubuntu run on two separate hard discs which are on caddies. The Canon MX420 printer driver was installed from a Canon CD. The printer driver for Linux was downloaded from the internet. Both boot separately on different hard discs with printer drivers installed from different sources. So that could likely be the reason for the difference in the amount of ink being used. I note the comment about Canon drivers being out of date. The MX420 printer is not very old but the linux printer driver might be, I don't know that for sure.Recently I bought a HP Deskjet f2180 which is on the linux recommended printer list but am keeping it spare for when the Canon breaks down. The amount of trouble trying to get the Canon to work properly on Linux convinced me that HP is the safest bet. In the meantime if I need to scan anything I'll use windows which is not all that often.